Termination: Firing with Compassion & Class

"Managers cite firing employees as the job they most hate to do. Sometimes, however, terminating a staff person’s employment is the best step to take for your organization. Sometimes terminating a person’s employment is the kindest action you can take for the person."

from Susan Heathfield

Read more at About.com.

Workers' Comp, ADA, FMLA - Sorting out Leave-Law

Finding your way through your state workers' comp laws, the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) can be daunting.

Two employment law attorneys offer some tips at HR.BLR.com. Among them:

• find out "if the employee seeking leave is eligible for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act for a 'serious health condition.'"
• if there is a serious health condition, does it qualify as a protected disability under ADA?
• beware of "traps for the unwary"

More details at HR.BLR.com

More Foregin Seasonal Workers Would be Allowed with Senate Approved Bill

" The Senate voted 94-6 in favor of legislation that would allow more foreign seasonal workers by temporarily exempting from a 66,000 visa cap workers who were hired through the H-2B visa program in previous years, the Associated Press reports."

from HR.BLR.com - read more

Online Recruiting Videos

If a picture is worth a thousand words is a video worth a million?

Actually there's no comparison. Think about the jobs in amazing places that you are in the business of selling - then look at how you sell them.

THEN - if you have a broadband connection or a lot of patience on dial-up - check out this video that Google is using to attract women engineers.

Cool Works (tm) is about Jobs in Great Places - and you all are the great places we promote. With the proliferation of broadband, video is another very rich way to show yourself off. Let us know if this is something you'd like to get into.

More to read at the Online Recruitment HR Blog.

Blogging About Work Can Get You Fired

Spouting off about your employer or your job in a personal job can come back to haunt you. It all depends of course, but a growing number of employers are rolling out policies on blogs.

Read more at HR.Blr.com and the New York Times (requires registration)

Help with HR Policies

Dig in for free HR and employee management guidelines, policies, checklists and more. If you need to tune up or assemble an employee handbook this could help.

Links and Resources at About.com

Generation Gaps at Work

Things can get interesting enough with different generations working together. Throw in the housing scenarios involved in many seasonal jobs and it just gets better. If it's all keeping you up at night you may find a little bit of help and insight at About.com's feature, "When Generations Collide at Work".

SHRM Survey Says Reference Checking Helps ID Poor Performers

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has released their 2005 Reference Checking Survey. Among their findings:

• 96% of organizations conduct some kind of reference or background check
• 40% of HR professionals over the past three years report spending more time on reference checking
• 52% of survey respondents say they outsource part of their reference checking or verification
• 73% of respondents believe reference checking is somewhat/very effective in identifying poor performers

Because of liability fears, 54% of organizations do not provide references when asked. At the same time, 75% of HR pros say they would share more about their former or current staff if they were protected from liability.

More details online at SHRM.org

Dress Codes and Religion

"When a Costco employee who belongs to the Church of Body Modification insisted that her religious beliefs trumped the company dress code, a legal battle ensued. This in-depth report examines what happens when an employee’s religious beliefs conflict with the company dress code."

By Alison Stein Wellner on Workforce.com